Turkey: Red meat production in Q1 over 210,000 tons

By Tuba Sahin

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey produced 211,435 tons of red meat in the first three months of this year, according to the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) on Friday.

The country's red meat production fell by 16.5% year-on-year in the first quarter and it was also down 18.6% on a quarterly basis.

"In total red meat production, the amount produced by slaughterhouses was 174,052 tons," TurkStat said.

Turkey's cattle meat production was estimated to stand at 191,287 tons while sheep meat output around 17,932 tons from January to March.

Last year, the country produced 1.12 million tons of red meat, a drop of 0.7% over the previous year.

Including cattle and buffalos, the number of bovine animals totaled 17.2 million heads in 2018, up 6.9 percent year-on-year.

Official data also said the number of ovine animals surged 4.1 percent to 46.1 million heads over the same period.